


And as the sky is falling down

by starlightwalking



Series: Fëanorian Redemption [6]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Finwëan Ladies Week 2019, Gen, Tauriel Fëanorian, Wanderer Maglor, Wanderer Tauriel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-20
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2020-10-24 15:10:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20708072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlightwalking/pseuds/starlightwalking
Summary: He looked at her like she was a ghost from his past. Perhaps she was.





	And as the sky is falling down

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [a few](https://arofili.tumblr.com/post/187592594917/maedhros-isnt-curufinhes-not-feanors) [scattered thoughts](https://arofili.tumblr.com/post/187770407937/you-know-ive-never-really-liked-the-tauriel-is) I've had in the past few weeks - I strung some of them together and came up with this short little fic. Title is, of course, from "I See Fire."
> 
> I wrote this last night, for FLW Day 4: Aredhel, Galadriel, and Beyond (this fic would fall very squarely into the "& Beyond" category). This is definitely not my main Tauriel headcanon, but it was very fun to explore! I've missed my girl and I'm glad to have written this short little fic for her...it's been too long :)

He looked at her like he beheld a ghost, his façade of menace slipping away as he staggered backward with wide eyes.

She did not relax or let her grip on her daggers loosen in the slightest. She glared at him, baring her teeth. "What are you looking at?"

"You..." Was he _crying_? "You—you look like—_him_."

"Like whom?" she snapped, stepping forward and raising her knives.

He dropped his swords, raising his hands in surrender. Yes, his eyes were indeed full. They glimmered unnaturally, in a way that sent shivers down her spine—those eyes...they were full of light, light that spilled into his tears as they dripped down sunburnt cheeks.

"My brother," he rasped. "Lady—"

"I am no lady," she corrected, but the light in his eyes and the vulnerability in his trembling voice convinced her to lower her weapons. "I am an exile, a traitor to my people." Her lip twisted. Even after all these years, the truth still felt sour on her tongue.

He laughed, a raspy, hideous sound. "Aye, so were we all." He reached forward, as if to touch her, see if she was real, but she grabbed his wrist.

"Don't touch me," she growled.

He nodded, and she let him go. "Who are you?" he asked.

"I could ask the same of you," she countered. With a frown, she added, "You are...different than the other Eldar. My people, we are wood-folk, star-worshippers and night-dancers. But you..." He reminded her of someone. Who was it?

"I have seen a greater light than the stars," he murmured, looking down. "That light has since—passed from Arda, save in fragments."

Her eyes widened. "Lady Galadriel!" she exclaimed.

He flinched. "Why speak _her_ name?" he muttered.

"She has the same light about her," she said. "But it is far greater. If you carry it with you now, it is a smaller fragment in you than in her."

"The light of Laurelin in her hair," he grumbled. "Yes, my father wished for it, but she refused. It was her right, I suppose, but she was ever unfond of us afterward."

"Your...father?" She frowned. The legends of her people were different from those of the exiles from the West, but she had heard the Noldorin legends alongside the Sindarin. Names she could not remember, but that story...

"And your forefather," he said softly. "Lady—do not protest, unless you wish to give me the name you denied me earlier!"

"Tauriel," she said stiffly. "And yours—_lord_?"

"I have long since forsaken that title," he said, even more wearily than she, but he did not offer his name. "Tauriel. You bear the likeness of my brother—my brothers—they were twins—you carry their face. Their hair." He shivered. "You said you are a wood-elf? No Silvan I have ever known had hair as red as yours."

Unable to help herself, Tauriel felt one of her hands drift toward her fiery locks. "My father bore this, and his father before him," she said suspiciously.

"And his before him, through our mother's line." He looked at her, that light gleaming in his eyes. She couldn't look away. "But your eyes—I know those eyes, also, though they are not so dear to me. My brother's wife was a Sinda. He swore she perished in Doriath, but...perhaps she survived, and fled east...carrying his child."

Tauriel scoffed. "This is a wild tale, with naught to prove it. Names, milord, give me names and perhaps I shall believe you."

"Thennes was her name," he said. "She had eyes like yours, forest-green. Those, also, came from your father?"

"My grandfather," she replied. "My father's eyes were brown." She trembled: Thennes. Yes, that name was known to her, an ancestor of hers. Thennes had raised her youngest son in the Greenwood, passing on to further horizons after a time. Her elder sons, silver-haired twins (or so the story went; Tauriel had never quite believed it in whole) left with her, but Tauriel's grandfather stayed in the forest with his wife and a son of his own. Tauriel's father, Merilon.

"And her son wed a wood-elf," he continued, to himself as much as to her. "And his son another...until you were born, a Silvan with a few drops of Sindarin and Noldorin blood."

Tauriel shook her head. "You are mad, milord. I am Silvan, and Silvan only. My king was a Sinda—I know I am not as he. His son is half-Sinda, half-Silvan, and I certainly not as _he_."

"And yet, your hair. Your face." He stared at her like she was phantom from his past come to haunt him. Perhaps she was.

"You gave me Thennes' name, but who was her husband? Your brother?" she demanded. "Give me a name, milord, and perhaps I shall then—"

"His name was Amras," he said. "He died many ages ago."

"Amras?" Tauriel snorted as the name fell into place with the ancient stories. "What, like the Fëanorian? You are foolish if you think—" She stopped, staring at him. "If you—if you think..."

Could it be—? No, that was ridiculous. But what if— No, this was foolishness! He was no more Maglor the Wanderer than she was Fëanor's daughter, and that—

Amras—husband of Thennes. Thennes, who bore her grandfather.

"Thennes had other children with her, older sons," she said, her voice faint to her own ears. "Two silver-haired twins. What of them?"

His eyes widened. "_Oh_," he breathed. "That—would explain several things."

"What do you mean?"

"Those were not her blood-sons," he explained. "She fostered them, like I—" Suddenly he choked up again, tears springing unbidden to his gleaming eyes. "Like I fostered Elrond and Elros. And her other son...she must have not told him."

"His name was Collas," she said. "His son, my father—his name is Merilon."

His eyes widened. "Collas. Of course." His lip twisted. "An apt name. 'Golden-red leaves.' Aye, she learned word-crafting from our family."

"You are being serious," she stated, the realization hitting her all at once. "Dear stars! Are you really..._him_?"

"Name me, if you think you know," he challenged.

She hesitated, not wanting to know the truth. "You truly think I am the descendent of Amras? Of—of Fëanor? Your kin?"

"Your face. Your hair. Your eyes." He looked at her, and she felt his gaze pierce into her very soul. "Your fëa burns like one of ours. You are an exile. You love the stars—have you loved the Star of Eärendil in particular, Tauriel? It is, in some twisted way, your birthright as it once was mine...it is the Silmaril of my father. Of your great-great-grandfather."

She saw no lie in him. He had seen her spirit, and she saw his—yes, that fire was in them both, born of the same source. Of...of _Fëanor_.

So instead of saying, "Are you certain?" she reached out to him, grasping his arm and staring into those brilliant eyes, shining bright like the two lost Silmarils.

"Uncle," she said, for in a distant manner, he was. "Maglor."

**Author's Note:**

> For another take on Tauriel & Maglor meeting, check out [this fic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5906779) I wrote awhile back!  
For more info on Thennes, and a more detailed look at what was up with those twins she adopted, check out [my fic ATATYA](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20398906) \- she is discussed beginning in chapter 4!
> 
> If you've been following my Tauriel fics for awhile, you may recognize the name Merilon - this is my OC for Tauriel's father, and I've used him in several other stories before. His name means "rose." I invented the character of Collas for this story; Maglor translated his name in-fic as "golden-red leaf," a fitting name for the son of Amras born in Mirkwood...
> 
> Thanks for reading and commenting!  
You can find me on tumblr [@arofili](http://arofili.tumblr.com/), and check out the [Finwëan Ladies Week blog](http://finweanladiesweek.tumblr.com/) too!


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